J.Wessler: Interesting how peas in 1A pod fell

Tuesday

Jan 21, 2014 at 8:16 PM

Josh WesslerOF THE JOURNAL STAR

Job well done, Adam.

If you picked up a copy of Sunday's edition of the Journal Star, you may have read about the JS' own Adam Duvall and his participation in this year's "rolling of the peas" at the IHSA offices last Friday in Bloomington.

Long story short, our big-school girls basketball beat writer was chosen to randomly select numbered peas from a bottle, which are then used to determine bracket position for the upcoming winter sports postseasons.

And while I don't know enough about this year's crop of Scholastic Bowl or wrestling talent to offer up an opinion on how he did for those competitions, I must say that the set-ups for the Class 1A and 2A girls basketball tournaments have the potential to make February's march to March an exciting one for area teams.

Beginning with the Class 1A tournament, the peas determined that the winner of the Illinois College Supersectional will face the winner of the Salem Supersectional in the first state semifinal game, to be held Friday, Feb. 28 at Redbird Arena in Normal. The second semi will see supersectional winners from Illinois Wesleyan and DeKalb square off.

Locally, this means that a potential state championship showdown between area No. 1 Annawan and No. 2 Brimfield could be in store, provided that both teams manage to make their way through the postseason minefield.

This is where the sectional portion of the peas comes into play, as Brimfield will have to navigate its way through a Bushnell-Prairie City Sectional field that contains state vote-getter South Fulton. The Rebels, who travel to Brimfield this Saturday for a key Prairieland Conference matchup, would face the Indians in the final should both teams win their first three postseason games.

The B-PC winner would advance to face the winner from the White Hall Sectional, where sixth-ranked Carrollton resides, in the IC Supersectional. The winner of that will face the winner of a Salem super field that includes No. 3 Moweaqua A&M and No. 9 Arcola.

For top-ranked Annawan, which will compete in the Granville Sectional, where fourth-ranked host Putnam County is a contender, the challenge will be in making it back to the state semifinals. The Bravettes, who took third in last year's tournament, could potentially face No. 2 Gilman Iroquois West, No. 8 Danville Schlarman or No. 10 Hume Shiloh in the state quarterfinal at IWU.

Over in Class 2A, where top-ranked Champaign St. Thomas More looks determined to make up for a second-place finish a year ago, the path to Redbird seems to be a lot more difficult for the locals.

The winner of the Millikin Supersectional, where Rushville-Industry is the only area representative, will play the Salem super winner in the first semifinal on Feb. 28, while the Monmouth winner will play the River Forest winner in the nightcap.

The chance for an all-area final seems to be a long shot at best, with most of the area's 2A teams set to compete in the Minonk Sectional half of the Monmouth super. And with teams like state-ranked Sherrard (No. 5), El Paso-Gridley (6), Prophetstown (8) and Byron (9) competing along with vote-getters Illini West and Havana, the supersectional field is loaded with talent.

That said, the team that cuts the nets down in Monmouth may actually have caught a break, as only Elgin Westminster Christian stands out from among the field of potential state semifinal opponents.

That's certainly not the case on the other half of the bracket, where No. 1 St. Thomas More will be joined by No. 2 Breese Central, No. 3 Nashville, No. 4 Teutopolis and No. 7 Watseka in the hunt to reach the state final.

Seeding for the tournaments will take place next week, with competition beginning on Feb. 10.

Josh Wessler is a Journal Star sports reporter. He can be reached at 686-3214 or jwessler@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @joshwessler